WHDH-TV/ State House News Service
Crews at a natural gas compressor station in Weymouth triggered an emergency shutdown and vented an unspecified amount of natural gas Wednesday morning, marking the second such incident in three weeks.
The incident prompted new calls from Congressman Stephen Lynch to shut down the facility.
Enbridge spokesman Max Bergeron confirmed that the emergency shutdown system went into effect automatically around 10:30 a.m., which he said “safely isolated the station and vented the natural gas in a controlled manner.”
Bergeron said the company is investigating what triggered the automatic shutdown and so far has “found no issues which would affect the safety of the station.”
He declined to say how much gas was released, citing the ongoing investigation. “We have notified state and local officials, and are proceeding with safety as our priority,” Bergeron said. “We will safely place the Weymouth Compressor Station in service following the successful completion of testing and calibrating activities, once we are confident the facility is fit for service.”
On Sept. 11, workers triggered a shutdown after a gasket failure, venting up to 265,000 cubic feet of natural gas.
Thirteen days later, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave Enbridge final approval to start service at the station by Oct. 1.
Lynch, a longtime opponent of the project, asked for federal intervention after the incident earlier this month and called Wednesday for FERC to revoke its authorization “due to the repetitive occurrence of these extremely dangerous events.” “While additional details on this latest safety incident are still under investigation, these accidents endangered the lives of local residents and are indicative of a much larger threat that the Weymouth Compressor Station poses to Weymouth, Quincy, Abington and Braintree residents, as well as surrounding communities, by operating in such a densely residential area,” Lynch said in a statement.
Lynch said he plans to perform a walk-through of the site later this week and asked an official from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration to accompany him.
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